legacycentral bbs

Hey, This is my first time posting a topic... I'll start off with a little bout myself, then onto the problem, my tleggy..

This my first subaru, first turbo'd car, but my 5th car I've owned. Before this subie, I was into off roading and 4-wheeling with trucks and stuff. I had a 96 chevy cavalier, 90 Jeep Cherokee, 98 Land Rover DiscoveryI, and my last car was a 92 Nissan Pathfinder. I blew the engine out on a trail in the pathfinder around July/August of 2012. I was on the hunt for a Ford Bronco or a cool subaru....

Now the subaru. I saw this on an craigslist ad and it said "turbo" and "5spd" so I called and asked whats wrong with it blah blah blah. Turns out its a 1992 Subaru Legacy AWD SS 5spd with 175k miles with a misfire. The paint is alright, there is only on spot of noticable rust and a couple dents. In the end, I paid $1500 for it! I was driving it to school and back for awhile and then I got a not under my wiper blade saying there are alot of subie guys in Colorado Springs, CO and the note was actually from a guy on here! sooo now to get to the point...

This "misfire". we replaced the sparkplugs and Cyl. 1 spark plug had oil and crap all over it and the others were like any other worn sparkplug. Then i had the car running (its idling rough) and pulled plug wires one at a time to see which cylinder is the culprit. Pulled them and Cyl. 1 didnt have any affect on the rough idle whereas the other plugs when pulled, made the car almost die...
Also, there is a black mark on my driveway from the exhaust from over the months so I believe its running a bit rich? like the gas in cyl. 1 isnt getting ignited. So thats that problem i have no idea what to do, ive heard new coil pack, plugs, wires, and compression test. Im gunna do the comp test soon.
Then its burning oil under the hood like as if its leaking out of something, i think valve guide seals? or something like that.
any comments would be much appreciated! thanks and sorry for the "essay"
planning:
-wrx tmic
-td04
-3" catback probly
-misc little things
now for some pics..

when i first got it (i painted the hood scoop first thing lol)



now after some painting, elctrical taped the chrome, new tires, fixed taillight, and mudflaps!

You probably have a bad plug wire. Replace all the spark plugs with good ngk or denso plugs copper or iridum for longer life and replace the plug wires right away. Its not running rich its just not getting spark in one of your cylinders so all that fuel is going out the exhaust and it'll probably foul up your oxygen sensor and clog your cat faster.

ok cool. I was gunna replace all the plugs and wires this weekend with some new ngk's. I'd rather do that first than take it to a $150/hr mechanic to tell me that haha. Yea cause im not getting a check engine light either. But im getting 15mpg at best in city and the car shakes while im idling at like a stop light but thats from the misfire i think.. but thanks Kimo, ill do that and tell ya how it goes.

No problem. Even though the cel isn't on you probably still have a misfire code stored in the ecu. Might as well check the ecu for stored codes. They go away when the issue goes away. Under the dash on the left side of the steering column are two black single wire connectors that fit together. Put them together and put the ignition switch in the on position. The cel will blink the codes. Slow. Links represent the first digit and the quick flashes represent the second digit of each code. The different trouble codes are seperated by a pause and it will loop them indefinitely until the connectors are disconnected. If you search for touble codes on the forum you'll find a link to a page with a list of all of the codes and what they mean.

Oh ok, ill do that too. Ive seen Legacy777's website (i thinks its his) that has the instructions on how to find codes and what not. So yea, ill give that a shot and see what comes up.

Hey Chris is Alex!! Glad to see u finally made it on to bbs we should catch up soon and ill help ya work on the subie, mines been down for a while too and hopefully will have it back any day

Hey man. Yea i figured its about time i try and fix this thing. Im headed to aurora tomorrow to pick up an 05 wrx tmic, wrx hood scoop, and lug nuts all for $50! but this weekend im gunna do my plugs, wires, and codes and maybe a compression test. (and i havnt seen your subie in the parking garage yet lol, need to park next to it and take some sick pix lol)

Be warned that intercooler won't fit without some firewall sledgehammering. You want the 06-07. But for $50 that's a decent deal. You can sell the intercooler for $20-30 and pick up an 06-07 wrx intercooler for between $40-60. You'll also need a small length of pipe and a silicone Ypipe and silicone throttle body to intercooler coupler. The details on how to make the 06-07 intercooler fit can be found searching or deep inside my build journal.

Yea i heard about the hammering part... But $30 for an intercooler is amazing (at least i think) but yea ill keep a lookout for the 06-07 while im waiting for a td04 to pop up somewhere. And yes, ive been on your build journal quite a few times haha mainly looking at pictures but the build journals help so much! i still need a boost gauge and controller and the samco pipe and t-clamps i think they're called. oh and i got an 05 sti bov for $20... after ive been reading, i dont think it'll work cause of it staying open at idle or something. i need a bpv, though legacy777 said he used his stock bpv up to 19psi (or at least thats what i thought he was saying)

I have an extra 07 wrx tmic for cheap if u want...great condition, was gonna use but my 03 fits just fine

I have a sti bov on mine... U just need to elbow part to reroute it back to ur intake!! I still have that boost gauge for free like I told u last time

Ps.... I graduated so I wont be parked there now but I'm down for a scenic photoshoot soon

I might have to take you up on that 07 tmic. But ok, i might need your help on the bov thing. For the "photoshoot", we should have another legacy meet and drive like to red rocks again or somewhere else like Estes Park or something, nice mountain drive

Kimo, should I install a new coil pack or ignition coil or wahtever its called along with the plugs and wires? or will i be good with the new ngk wires and iridium plugs?

Yes I'm sure we could get a group meet going! I'm contemplating buying another one, possible wagon as a stock beater while my modded one is down

I wouldn't. Do the plugs and wires first. You don't want to buy a whole bunch of parts to fix one bad part and then not even know which one was bad afterwards and how much money you wasted.

OK...
So i replaced the plug wires and all the spark plugs and it runs about the same. Here's a video of it running and i disconnect cylinder #1 plug and idle doesnt change. all the other plugs make it bog way down when i pull them. It idles 600ish to under 1k rpm, usually on the bottom of the 750 mark though. (i wasnt letting it drop all the way though, itll snake its way down. and the throttle isnt very responsive at low end) (the rattle you hear when i rev it in the cab is the loose chimney)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o8OcONG_ ... e=youtu.be

then i had my dad rev it while i put my had behind the muffler and this happened.... (smelled like gas too)


so i know my injectors are working, thats good.
I then thought it could be a stuck valve or something like that so i seafoamed it but i couldnt figure out where to put it cause everybody said different things, so i put right at the throttle body and revved it so it wouldnt die. let it die, then sit for 20mins, then idle 15mins, then drove wot for a bit, lots of smoke. Its still smoking at high end. AND its still idling bad like before

So here's my question... Could it be a burnt exhaust valve thats "stuck" open therefore letting all the gas shot into cly#1 just go right out the exhaust valve and out the exhaust?

ps- mods, i think this probly should be moved to the engine thread haha thx

As for the smoke in the engine bay, this is where its smoking. In the red circle but kinda comes to where the arrow is. and where the tip of the arrow is, that gets all wet from oil i think.


and on a side note, i broke this nipple on the air box thingy


and it went to this hose that went to that this thing (the circle is the broken nipple)


is this bad that the nipple is broken and not connected? like a vacuum leak mayeb?

Maybe your coil pack is bad then or your ignitor?

what's an ignitor? and could the really bad shaking be from a bad motor mount? cause i can kinda shake the engine when its off and it doesnt shake the rest of the car

Since the ignition system is a wasted spark setup, any issue would affect the opposing cylinders. What I would suggest is verifying the spark plug is firing on cylinder 1. Use a noid or spark plug test light. Or you can just use one of the old spark plugs plugged into the plug wire and rest the plug on the block. You should see spark on the plug. BTW, don't hold the plug or you'll get shocked.

If you have spark, the next thing you should do is a compression test on all four cylinders. If cylinder 1 is down on compression, you should do a leak down test to determine where the issue is. Exhaust valve, intake valve or piston.

The nipple that broke off is for the vent line on the wastegate solenoid. This vent line needs to be hooked back up to a spot somewhere in the intake prior to the turbo. I don't think gluing the nipple back on will work, so you might try epoxying a brass nipple or something into the resonator box.

The ignitor creates the spark, its like an ignition control module... I agree with the compression and leakdown test to narrow ur problems down... I'm off all day tomorrow and can help u work on it and get u that intercooler

The shaking can be motor mounts... I swapped mine to sti ones and mine were all loose causing a horrible shake between my ic and firewall!

Ok. I think all four are getting spark because when i pull the plug wires while the car is running, you can hear the zapping in the rubber plug cover thing. So ill definately do a comp test. and for the nipple, would it be easier to do the epoxy with a new nipple or just go ahead and do that coffee cup mod?
And, Alex, thad be great, im down for anything. I want to be home to watch the superbowl though haha. Does napa or oreily's rent out comp testers? and could you help me with a leakdown test? idk how that works
Thanks for all the replies guys! i really want to get this thing working right

If you want to do the coffee cup mod that would kill two birds with one stone.....it just depends if want to do that now or later.

Alex said to just go with like a K&N intake system which is basically the same as the coffee cup mod and would take care of that problem too. he said he got his for $100. and the shaking we concluded that was bad lower motor mounts cause i can shake the engine while the car is off and it shakes while the rest of the car doesnt... and for the smoke, valve cover/guide seals so ill go to the dealership and get some oem gaskets and fix that.
All thats left is the misfire, so ill do a comp test and a leakdown test. Alex said my cel light might be out too... so ill look into that too.
On a side note, im picking up an 02 td04 tomorrow for $100 woo